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Apr 26, 2010

Joseph Tovares is the new senior vice president for Diversity and Innovation at CPB. Pat Harrison, CPB president, said in a statement that Tovares "will work to extend public media’s reach and service through innovation.” The statement said Tovares "was responsible for overseeing the implementation of the NPS/Diversity and Innovation fund agreement for CPB," which was yet to be publicly announced (Current, April 19). He has also served as senior director of operations for Television Programming. Before his CPB tenure he was executive producer for La Plaza, the Latino production unit at WGBH; and series editor and director of New Media at American Experience. His station experience includes KLRN in San Antonio; KLRU in Austin, Texas; and KET in Lexington, Ky. Tovares had been working in the position since Joaquin Alvarado's departure late last year for American Public Media (Current, Dec. 9, 2009).

The FCC is assembling a spectrum task force to coordinate long-term planning and implementation of recommendations in the National Broadband Plan, reports Broadcasting & Cable. One main goal is promoting the possible auction of spectrum to create more space for wireless broadband (Current, Feb. 8). Heading up the task force will be Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering Technology; and Ruth Milkman, chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Members will include heads of the Enforcement, International, Media, and Public Safety and Homeland Security bureaus, and the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis.

Since its conversion into a listener-supported public radio station last fall, New York's classical WQXR has gained more than 127,000 listeners--enough to make it the top-rated public radio station in the country, the New York Times reports. This despite its move to a less powerful frequency last fall under new owner WNYC. The WQXR audience is also responding generously to on-air fundraising appeals. The February pledge drive blew past its $750,000 goal to raise $1.3 million from some 10,000 WQXR listeners, 57 percent of whom had never donated to WNYC before. Likewise, Boston's classical WCRB--now under the ownership of WGBH--recently set a new record for the most money raised from radio listeners in a single day.